Bloom Energy (although debatably greentech) is a high-profile fuel cell manufacturer, and the firm is using all of the tools at its disposal -- including, in this case, California's SGIP subsidy -- to advance its business.

The SGIP (Self-Generation Incentive Program) is a subsidy established by California's PUC to support existing and emerging distributed energy resources -- providing one-time, upfront rebates for distributed energy systems installed on the customer's side of the utility meter. Qualifying technologies include wind turbines, fuel cells, and associated energy storage systems.

Bloom and its customers received $218.5 million in subsidies in 2010 from the SGIP, dominating the program, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee. A total of $327.7 million was awarded by the program in 2010. As we noted in January, total subsidies can climb to $8.25 a watt when biogas supplements and all federal and state programs are added.

The CPUC claims that these funds benefit all ratepayers whose utilities have a reduced need to invest in expensive transmission and distribution infrastructure.

As of December 31st, 2008, the SGIP had over 1,299 on-line projects and over 337 megawatts of rebated capacity. Bloom is not the only fuel cell firm to avail themselves of this subsidy -- ClearEdge Power, Fuel Cell, and UTC Power have gotten their share, as well.

Utility customers pay for the program through a charge on their electric bills. PG&E's residential customers pay about $5.00 per year, industrial customers pay an average of $3600 per year, according to the CPUC. The fees generate more than $80 million per year.

From the same article: PG&E filed a petition late last year, asking that the CPUC suspend payments, pending a revision of rules to better disperse the money across different technologies. John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins intervened and called the head of the CPUC. The article continues, "The program is supposed to expire again this year. Bloom is involved in an effort to extend it. Lobbyist Lenny Goldberg, who represents The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group, said the main reason the program is being extended is that Bloom "sucked up all the money," leaving little for other producers."

Natural gas fuels the Bloom Box with low-carbon emissions and efficiencies in the range of a natural gas genset. After incentives, Bloom claims its server generates power for 9 cents to 11 cents a kilowatt hour, a calculation that includes fuel, maintenance and hardware expenses.

Bloom's 100-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) sells for about $700,000 before incentives and the company will have shipped units to marquee customers such as Walmart, Google and FedEx. That's a significant amount of revenue for a young company, possibly on the scale to get to an IPO in 2011. An SEC filing for a proposed IPO would reveal how much the Bloom Box costs to build versus its selling price.

As a public service we provide an updated list of the top three profitable publicly-held fuel cell firms:

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(By the way, I may not be able to keep this list blank for long -- Ballard Power is on the cusp of profitability after a decade of losses)